If you’re interested in keeping your grocery bills as low as possible, consider purchasing and cooking some dried beans. There are plenty of varieties to choose from and you can do a lot with them. They’re also as inexpensive as you can get. Since we eat a regular salad every night with dinner, I thought a nice bean salad might go well with that. With that in mind, I cooked up far too many beans and located one of the millions of recipes for a bean salads online. I’d say the results were excellent. The salad was great.
The Recipe
You can’t get any easier than making a bean salad. Yes, you’ll need to soak the dried beans overnight and then cook them the next day, but once that’s finished, all you need to do is prep and combine ingredients. In this case, the ingredients are onion, capers, parsley, cucumber, Italian seasoning, and a few other things. There’s also a vinaigrette I’ll discuss down below. After the beans are finished cooking, the prep and assembly time is mere minutes. And I have to tell you, we now have a ton of bean salad. There’s so much value in this type of food.
By the way, I’d like to thank Inspired Taste for this recipe. I changed some parts of it, but I was inspired by the original.
Ingredients
Makes: About 6 Cups (depending on how many beans you use)
You can use any type of beans you want for this salad, whether they be canned or dried. If you plan on using canned beans, be sure to drain and rinse them before use. If you plan on using dried beans, beware. They expand and you’ll end up with a lot more than you expect. Eh hem.
For the Bean Salad
3 Cans Beans (15-Ounce), Drained or 1 Package Dried Beans (16-Ounce), Cooked
1 Medium Sized Onion, Chopped
1 Cucumber, Chopped
3 Tablespoons Capers, Drained
1/2 Cup Fresh Parsley, Chopped
1 Teaspoon Dried Italian Seasoning
For the Vinaigrette
1/4 Cup Red Wine Vinegar
1/4 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 Teaspoon Dijon Mustard
2 Teaspoons Honey
1 Teaspoon Salt
1/2 Teaspoon Ground Black Pepper
Cook the Beans
If you’re using canned beans, drain and rinse them as I mentioned above. If you’re using dried beans, follow the cooking instructions on the package. Generally, you’ll need to soak the dried beans in a pot of water overnight and then cook them the next day over medium-high heat for about an hour or until tender. It’s an easy process. If you taste one after the hour and it’s still too firm, keep cooking until tender.
For my salad, I used pinto and great northern beans.
Combine the Vegetables
In a large bowl, combine the onion, cucumber, capers, parsley, and seasoning.
Prepare the Vinaigrette
In a medium sized bowl, add the vinegar, olive oil, mustard, honey, salt, and pepper. Whisk these ingredients together well.
Combine All Ingredients & Serve
Finally, add the beans and vinaigrette to the vegetables in the large bowl. Mix everything together well.
Divide the bean salad between bowls and serve. Or, you can be like me and add some on top of another more traditional salad. Either way, it’s a great dish. Enjoy!
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